High-Altitude LIDAR Atmospheric Sensing (HALAS) System Development/Testing

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

NASA GLENN RESEARCH CENTER (GRC)

RECOMMENDATION AND DETERMINATION TO SOLICIT FROM ONE SOURCE:

NASA intends to negotiate with only Aerospace Engineering Associates LLC for consultant support to NASA GRC as part of GRC’s support to DARPA XSP for U.S. Air Force’s High-Altitude LIDAR Atmospheric Sensing (HALAS) System Development/Testing. The total estimated cost of this effort is approximately $55,000.00, and the estimated period of performance or lead-time for delivery is twelve months.

This recommendation is for the acquisition of services determined to be reasonably available from only one source. Competition is impractical for the following reasons:  

The preferred service provider for this procurement is Aerospace Engineering Associates LLC (the Company). This is because the president of this company is one of the co-creators of the predecessor system from the early 1970’s. His experience from this development is invaluable. The predecessor system, which is still in use today by launch vehicle contractors, was used by launch teams to safely launch of over sixty vehicles over multiple decades. This wealth of knowledge will be valuable for the development and flight testing of the replacement technology system (HALAS).

Additionally, the Company has a unique knowledge of launch vehicle manufacturers that will be valuable in support of this project. They have worked closely in co-developing the predecessor system with industry. This experience will help recognize critical issues and create proper mitigation strategies for all stakeholders in order to develop a tool that will be used by both the Government and industry.

If a different contractor is selected, there is no doubt that they will possess far less, and indeed insufficient technical background. As stated earlier, the Company's president had an essential role in creating the legacy technology system. That means more lessons learned will have to be re-learned, more mistakes re-made, and insight into better ways of developing such a system will not be taken advantage of because the different contractor might not know of it in the first place. This would result in wasted time, wasted money, and present a larger risk to the Government. The likelihood of obtaining a successful product is much greater if Aerospace Engineering Associates LLC is selected.

Awarded contract 80GRC020CW001 to unknown vendor for unknown amount on 2020-09-16.